The 100% Non-Elitist Review of Life

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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

This was posted about a year ago for starters. Anything I have to say means a total of Jack and shit now. But I do have to voice some kind of opinion on this, because it's a rising problem in this country and that is the problem of entitled parents.

Not kids, not really. Kids are another problem that stems from having a small amount of life experience and basic human desires. No, parents are becoming the entitled ones. They bitch and moan about everything being a "burden" or "harmful to development" when they're just afraid to say what's really the problem. Reading through that post reminded me of my own youth, when my mom would see me intensely watching cartoons. I've never been an early riser, even as a kid. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I love sleep. But I'm able to wake myself up when the desire hits me, and for me as a 8 year old the desire came from watching Pokemon. I loved watching the action yes, but for me it was about seeing the creativity that went into each and every one of them. This wasn't a show based on reality. It didn't focus on a handful of characters that look somewhat unique, it was an entire world of monsters that never existed in our world. I spent countless hours drawing and writing, trying to stay one step ahead of the franchise, trying to make the next best Pokemon, even before breeding and EV training was a thing.

My mom didn't have the same enthusiasm for the series as I did, to her it was a strain on her wallet. I would always be asking for a new game, or a new pack of cards, or a toy, or a number of other things that had the "Pokemon" trademark attached to it. She would see me waking up in the morning and enthusiastically sit on my ass for a few hours watching the entire block of cartoons waiting for Pokemon to come on. As a hard working woman she of course thought this was an incredible waste of time. I should be out playing, or at the very least working as hard as she did at her age. I just wasn't as enthusiastic about that kind of stuff as I was at seeing such original designs fighting it out in a mess of flashing lights.

Eventually she banned my consumption of Pokemon. I remember it was during the Johto series, when Ash and the gang were going through the plot line of the Red Gyarados (Sorry to those of you who aren't Pokemon fans... losers). She turned off the TV and made it perfectly clear she did not want me watching it anymore. This was a big blow for me, it was my favorite show. It was the outlet for my creativity and it was being taken away because of something I could not understand.

I was furious.

I bring this all up because it's the same situation as the mother taking away Minecraft from her kid. It's entitlement, believing that your status as parent means that anything that your kid does that's an inconvenience to you needs to be removed from your life completely. "Once upon a time I cursed the sound of scraping Lego in the box, I lamented the holes in my feet caused by trodding on bricks littered about the carpet." That line alone makes me furious. To think that a parent would take away something like LEGO's is unthinkable, but I'm sure it happens. The pain of a LEGO block is infamous, but that doesn't give anyone the right to take away something that's supposed to be an outlet. Parents need to realize that what entertains their child is not going to be what entertains them, and it might be something you inherently detest. Not once in that blog post did I feel like the mother was empathetic to her sons desires. She talked as if Minecraft had no value, it was just a waste of his time, and as a Minecraft player myself I can tell you it certainly is not.

But, you can't argue with a parent. They'll just assert their authority and walk away as if they earned their victory.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

It's no surprise to any of you people seeing this that I love Comic Books. DC and Marvel mostly, but I still love things like The Walking Dead, Wolfman, and some of the manga selections from Dark Horse. One thing that is however killing my strong comic book fandom buzz; Batman. It's been years since we had a Batman free span of time, and mostly that's because ever since Christopher Nolan got a hold of the series, the big corporations have realized how easy it is to make money off of him. We're living in an age where psychosis and major disorders are looked into more carefully, and we are actually paying attention to the psychology of even the worst characters, and mostly just so that you can see it from their side. Who better to take advantage of this new craze than a character who's been building up a rogues list of crazies for 50 years now.

But I'm sick of it. Yes, Batman is very interesting, but it's getting to the point where I've had enough of him, mostly because every single person I meet who has a conversation with me about Batman, has decided to themselves long before that Batman is invincible simply because he's Batman. Batman is always prepared for any situation. He's trained himself to be the greatest fighter, detective and whatever else. Yeah, we get that, but most of that is because DC comics had to make it so that Batman was a logical inclusion in the Mega-Club of the Justice League. This is a place where most of the people could outshine Batman in pretty much everything. But that's Batman, he's supposed to be human, just with more toys. He's only awesome because he did learn for himself everything he thought he needed to be a great crime fighter and has been able to come out on top for a long time.

This does not mean Batman is infallible. He's still been beaten within an inch of his life. He's had his spine broken, and what's worse his mind. Batman is not stable, he's almost just as crazy as the people that he locks up. What I'm saying is that Batman is still human, and while I do love to see him kick ass, it's REALLY getting old, and the next time I see him put Darkseid in a ultimatum, I think I might have to stop reading comic books for awhile.